Protective packages

ABSTRACT

Articles are anchored to the interior of the housing of a protective package by two pluralities of protuberances disposed on the housing shells. The two protuberances fall into meshing registry when the shells are brought together. A ramp is disposed on one of the shells to receive the article and position it over the protuberances.

United States Patent [191 Flynn Aug. 26, 1975 PROTECTIVE PACKAGES [75] Inventor: Kevin W. Flynn, Lincoln Park, NJ.

[73] Assignee: Bio-Medical Sciences, Inc., Fairfield,

221 Filed: Jan. 14, 1974 211 App]. No.: 433,264

[52] US. Cl 206/525; 206/306 [51] Int. Cl B65d 85/54 [58] Field of Search 206/306, 449, 525

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,494,458 2/1970 Meierhoefer 206/498 X Pickett et a1 206/306 X Chadha et a1 73/356 Primary Examiner--Leonard Summer Attorney, Agent, or F irm-Anthony Lagani, Jr.

57 ABSTRACT Articles are anchored to the interior of the housing of a protective package by two pluralities of protuberances disposed on the housing shells. The two protuberances fall into meshing registry when the shells are brought together. A ramp is disposed on one of the shells to receive the article and position it over the protuberances.

1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures mechanisms of the present invention;

1 FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a portion of one of the shellsforming-the housing and Y 1 "FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a portion of the other' she'llforming the housing. I 2. 1 Referring now in greater detail to the drawing, hous- "ing 11A which is comprised of two segments, 37 and 39 is designed to fully enclose the elements of a disposable I thermometer including shield 53 intervening a carrier I strip 54 and and indicator strip 55. Shield 53' is: peelably 7 removed from strips 54 and 55 .and these are then made to u.s.- Pat. No. 3,712,141.;

PROTECTIVE PACKAGES DETAILED DESCRIPTION There is described in copending US. application Ser.

No. 402,006 a package for the complete and protective enclosure of an article. The package includes a housing having a continuous surface of rigid or semi-rigid material which is banded by a section of sufficiently reduced wall thickness to permit frangible separation into two segments. One of the segments engages the article for removal from the other segment. The article which is packaged can be present in partially assembled form and converted to a fully assembled form upon, and in housing effects peelable removal of the anchored shield from the thermometer.

The present invention pertains to improvements in v "the means by which such article tabs are anchored. .While primarily intended for use in a package such as .is described in Ser. No. 402,006, filed on Oct. 1, 1973 the present improvement can be used wherever it is necessary to anchor a tab or stripelement to the inte- .rior ofa rigid or'semi-reg'id housing.

One anchoring device disclosed in Ser. 140,402,006 involves one or more posts which are defined on the injside surfaceof one or both of the shells forming the housing. Upon joining the two shells,.these posts pass through holes in the article tab thereby engaging it.

One disadvantage of such an arrangement is that the entire force applied against the tab upon removal of the article from the housing is localized at the post and thus solely in the region of the hole, thereby increasing the danger of tea'ringthe tab. Moreover, exactralignment of the tab in all three axis is necessary during manufacture one of the Shells during assembly along a axis subsmny '1 tiallyparallel to the longitudinal axis of the housing. In one embodiment the top" shell.27 is inverted and the thermometer elements are placed upon it, approaching in order to properly insert the post-through the tab hole. In addition the punching of the holes must satisfy extremely rigid specifications in order to insure proper alignment of the article in the package.

The present invention overcomes these difficulties and facilitates thehigh speed, automated assembly of g the final product. The nature of the present invention will be apparent from the'following description and the drawings in which FIGQI is side elevation of a package with a portion broken away to show the tab receiving and anchoring brought together to form the indicating portion of the thermometer. For greater detail on the construction y be -protuberance, as at80 and 81, at least as-high asthe and operation of the thermometer, reference the normal'axis of the thermometer elements. In addi- The thermometer components are packed in housing 11A which is divided into two segments 37 and 39 by band 38 which is defined in side walls 29, 30 and 34 by a section of reduced wall thickness, thus permitting the frangible separation of housing 11A into the two dis tinct segments 37 and 39. The thermometer is engaged by segment 39 by any one of a variety of means described more fully in Ser. No. 402,006 and accordingly separation of segments 37 and 39 results in the withdrawal of strips 54 and 55 from segment 37. By anchoring shield 53 to the interior of housing 1 1A within segment 37, separation of the two segments also results in peelable removal of shield 53 from strips 54 and 55. For greater details on these operations, reference may be made to the disclosure of Ser. No. 402,006.

In one method of manufacture, the thermometer elements are first assembled and then inserted into one of the shells. The other shell is then brought into registry with the first shell and sealed connection 28 is then made, as by heat sealing. In this operation shield tab 71 must be anchored and there are-accordingly provided a plurality of parallel raised protuberances 72 and 73 which are disposed on the inside surface of shell 27 and I a second plurality of parallel raised protuberances 74 and 75. on second shell 26. These two sets of protuberances are disposed so that they are brought into meshing registry when shells 26 and 27 are brought into registered connection for sealing. The clearance between the meshedprotuberances is sufficient to engage and anchor shield tab 71 and this engagement and anchoring is improved by the serpentine configuration which shield tab-71 assumes when the protuberances-mesh. Consequently upon bringing shells 26 and 27 into registry and completing the sealed connection, shield tab 71 is permanently anchored to the interior of segment 37 of housing 11A.

To assist in the registration operation, one shell can be provided with atongue 76 which slips into a matched opening 77 on the other shell. The elements of' the thermometer are received by generally as shown by the arrowin FIG. 3. It is impor-' choring when shell 26 is positioned. Tab 71 however is flexible and is often angularly disposed downward from tion, tab 71 may be skewered or twisted. Consequently, there is a tendency for the end of shield tab 71 to catch '-or snag on the front surface of protuberances 72 or 73 and be prevented from achieving its properpositioning, over both protuberances. To prevent this problem,

thereis provided on one of the shells a ramp 78 R amp 78 is-V-shaped and is disposed on the inside surface of protuberance and longitudinally with the housing from a level substantially. flush with the inside surfacei'of shell 27 at apex 79 to a level at the intersection with each protuberance. After intersecting with the protuberance, the incline of the ramp can flatten out.

As a result of the cooperation of the ramp and the protuberances, tab 71 of the article is correctly positioned over the protuberances without the need for being apparent that the invention can be practiced through obvious modifications and rearrangements without departing from the essential spirit thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. In a housing for an article in which the housing includes two shells of rigid or semi-rigid material having complementary surfaces which are joined together in sealed registered connection and the article includes a tab which is received by and anchored to the inside of the housing, an improved article tab receiving and anchoring mechanism comprising a plurality of parallel, raised protuberances disposed on the inside surface of a first one of the shells at x the point at which the article tab is to be anchored, a V-shaped ramp disposed on the inside surface of the same shell about the protuberances; the apex of the ramps V-shape being disposed in the direction from which the article tab is received and the incline of the ramp rising along an axis perpendicular to said parallel protuberances from a level which is substantially flush with the inside surface of the shell at the ramps apex to a level at each protuberance at least as great as the heightof that protuberance, and i a second plurality of parallel raised protuberances on the inside surface of the second of the shells, the second plurality of protuberances being disposed for meshing registry between the first plurality of protuberances within the V-shaped ramp of the first shell so as to anchor an article tab received by said ramp when said shells are brought into registered connection for sealing. 

1. In a housing for an article in which the housing includes two shells of rigid or semi-rigid material having complementary surfaces which are joined together in sealed registered connection and the article includes a tab which is received by and anchored to the inside of the housing, an improved article tab receiving and anchoring mechanism comprising a plurality of parallel, raised protuberances disposed on the inside surface of a first one of the shells at the point at which the article tab is to be anchored, a V-shaped ramp disposed on the inside surface of the same shell about the protuberances, the apex of the ramp''s V-shape being disposed in the direction from which the article tab is received and the incline of the ramp rising along an axis perpendicular to said parallel protuberances from a level which is substantially flush with the inside surface of the shell at the ramp''s apex to a level at each protuberance at least as great as the height of that protuberance, and a second plurality of parallel raised protuberances on the inside surface of the second of the shells, the second plurality of protuberances being disposed for meshing registry between the first plurality of protuberances within the Vshaped ramp of the first shell so as to anchor an article tab received by said ramp when said shells are brought into registered connection for sealing. 